


Fair and Fairs

by ppeacherine



Category: Code Geass
Genre: M/M, rarepair central guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-05 18:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20278165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ppeacherine/pseuds/ppeacherine
Summary: Milly's finale of a school festival succeeds in riling up the student body, terrorizing Rolo enough to trip inadvertently into the arms of the Knight of Seven. Memories ensue.





	Fair and Fairs

**Author's Note:**

> I've actually been writing this specific rarepair For A While, but I never bothered to get an account anywhere to upload them. If I could like... actually dig up the old stories I would upload them here, but I think I accidentally deleted them all.
> 
> OH RIGHT, important note: i write Code Geass as if Ashford is a literal adult university, which means a lot of the characters are in their 20s (with the exception of like, Nunnally and Anya, who are 18/19).

Rolo admits now that he’s grossly underestimated the ability for Britannia’s nobility to be so extra. He’d been around aristocracy here and there, but typically those encounters ended with him stripping gloves off his hands and covering up blood stains. Lelouch’s antics didn’t exactly count - his flamboyance was more rationally limited to Zero’s excesses. Milly was in a league of her own, and he had (foolishly) wanted to believe that making her own league entitled her to being the only member.

But no. She’d invented a stupid heart-hat festival, and with it, every Ashford student that had an iota of ridiculousness in them had crawled out of the wood work. Then, they’d infected the rest of them like horrible, pompous zombies.

“Anya wh-- oh my god, where’d he go? I thought he was supposed to be all.. wimpy...” Gino stands befuddled in the hallway, flailing his hands pathetically to accentuate his words. Sure, the boy didn’t have much presence but it wasn’t like he could just vanish. “He was right here…”

Rolo presses himself as small as possible behind a trophy case in the hall, holding his breath despite the angry, fluttering protests of his heart. Lord Kururugi needs to entertain his friends better, he tenses at the sound of footsteps, not bothering to peer out to see if they were coming or going. But then it hits him how dainty they are, obviously heels, and his hand flies up to signal the bubblegum-headed girl to be quiet right as she announces his presence.

“Found him.”

“Miss Alstreim--”

_You traitor_, Rolo scowls. Gino’s bigger and more athletic than he is, and it will take less than thirty seconds for him to catch up if he doesn’t go now. Anya narrowly avoids getting pushed over, clicking a blurry photo as he runs past -- and as Gino goes bounding after, an over-delighted dog after a stray tennis ball.

“Look! I was promised a special reward for catching one of the council members, and Suzaku’s not around, so,” He flawlessly catches the blazer Rolo takes off and throws at him (_Damn it,_) “It’s just gonna have to be you!” 

“Lord Weinberg, Lelouch will have your head,” this hallway is too long, and there isn’t near enough objects to serve as appropriate obstacles. Then again, they were both military trained -- he swerves for a hard left, dragging them to one of the sofa-and-chair laiden study areas, “For hurting his precious little brother,”

“I’m not going to hurt you!” _Right, but at the speed you’re going you’d have enough momentum to punch a hole in the wall_. Gino skids to a halt, blinking widely as Rolo (shockingly gracefully) vaults over a sofa, leaving the blonde the choice of going around or clearing the same jump.

He chooses to jump. 

In this moment, Rolo hates him. He hates his job, he hates being Rolo Lamperouge, and he hates that he has been reduced to a little rabbit in a very elaborate greyhound trap. He contemplates briefly if he should throw a potted plant at the thundering giant that’s gaining on him, but he would probably get charged with bodily harm (and Gino is stupid enough to barrel right through it, he imagines. It’d be a net loss).

“Capturing him then! I don’t care!”

He has to lose him by going somewhere he can’t. Geass wasn’t an option anymore - Gino was too suspicious after the first time, and combined with sprinting, he wasn’t willing to risk collapsing in the middle of Ashford. A twenty-four year old having a heart attack was not very subtle.

“Aw, but we’ll be so cute on our date, he won’t be able to-- I mean, if that’s what the prize is. Wait, is that what the prize is?” He doesn’t know if Gino is talking to Anya, and just assumed she followed after them, or if Gino is talking to him. He doesn’t want to find out, “Is the prize a date or is it just food?”

Rolo grabs a wall, pitching himself around it and down onto a flight of stairs. There’s a few other students cloistered around, switching hats or trying to avoid one another, and the way they all loudly greet Gino tells Rolo that he is far too close.

He inhales, jumps onto the stair rail, and accepts that he is either about to break his neck, or become a very unwilling accessory to an Olive Garden double-date evening. 

“Rolo wait--!” _You idiot!_ Gino’s bear-handed grappling snags his shirt. The students on the stairway all rush to help ensure tomorrow there isn’t an obituary on the Ashford paper, and right when they think they’ve got him--

Gino’s grip slips with all the sudden assistance, and Rolo falls straight down.

The stair formed a half-spiral, with him vaulting off the top rectangular flat and, maybe if he hadn’t been sabotaged by Britannia’s number Three moron, he could have cleared the gap and landed on the other flight in front of him. It was a long shot, but even if he missed he might have been able to grab the railing.

He braces himself to perform the dreaded tuck-and-roll on marble floors to avoid literally snapping his neck. The moment slows with the adrenaline rushing his system, and like missing a step, he feels everything stop. 

Especially when he doesn’t ever hit the floor. His eyes are so tightly shut in nauseating disorientation that he doesn’t think to react immediately. The arm he was bracing for the roll is wrapped tightly around… someone, and one eye opens slowly to confirm he didn’t just die and ascend before the other opens as well.

“Hey! Are you-- you…” 

“Lord Kururgi--” He reflexively places his other hand on Suzaku’s chest, only vaguely aware that he is being cradled by the Knight of Seven (_and also my boss_), “You… caught me-- Oh, no, Gino is still upstairs,” He’s about to come down the stairs, too, based on the sudden ruckus above them.

“There’s a supply closet here, but, I, well, I was going to get into it but it’s locked,” Suzaku admits hastily, adjusting his grip as Rolo suddenly starts searching through his pants pockets. Lelouch’s fake brother snaps something about going back to it, right as he produces a keyring, and be it because Suzaku is monstrously athletic or because the other students were still stunned (maybe both), they make it to the small, white hallway beneath the stairs that the door is in.

“It requires a security key, you wouldn’t have it,” the door opens, they both go in. Suzaku swivels around, allowing Rolo to lock the door, now on the opposite side, from his arms. 

Tense seconds pass as they wait to hear Gino banging on the wood. They both hold their breath. Suzaku swallows thickly--

And nothing happens. A small parade of footsteps rushes by, muffed by the door. With a quick glance to one another, they both conclude that they, like Suzaku, assumed the door was locked and couldn’t be opened by regular students. That, or they didn’t see them actually go into it, and just ran right on by.

They survived, and neither of them was going to be required to spend an evening with Gino (or, in Suzaku’s case, another evening with Gino).

“You can put me down now.”

“Oh-- Oh! I’m sorry,” Suzaku sets him down, haphazardly and awkwardly moving to dust him off before being swatted back so Rolo could fix his shirt and begin rolling up his sleeves. “What are the odds you’d… Jump off right as I was underneath…”

His tone sounds… strange. Rolo gives him a sideways glance, raising an eyebrow. There was no need to be demure around Suzaku, not when the other already knew every secret he had to give up. Suzaku’s secrets, on the other hand, were a small mystery to Rolo. They started with the way he stared into space for a few seconds, collecting his thoughts before heavily sitting down on a painters ladder near some plastic storage boxes.

“Slim. Actually, Lord Kururugi, I imagine I’d be in the E.R. right now if you hadn’t been down there-- which, what were you looking for the closet for?”

“...Gino,” he looks guilty admitting it, flushing some. Now that they weren’t under surveillance, he reaches up to fish off the blue, heart-shaped hat Milly had bestowed upon every male in the student body. “I mean, I like him, but… Not… it’s a long story.”

“So the rumors were true?” Rolo leans against the door, folding his arms.

“What rumors… there _were_ rumors?” Suzaku face becomes despaired by the wiggly hand motion Rolo gives him, some, and rests his elbows on his knees. A pause, then a loud groan.

“Only between aristocrats, so I wouldn’t worry too much. After all, they invent things like… this,” he makes a gesture to the space around them, and for a split second Suzaku thinks Rolo’s usually icy gaze softens, “it’s what happens when you have nothing to worry about except what glamorous career you’ll do after.”

“That’s… rude, but I can’t really disagree. Gino’s not bad, at least. He’s just… Sheltered. He has a good heart - likes to have fun.”

Rolo looks skeptical, before closing his eyes and sliding down the door to seat himself on the cement floor. “Lord Weinberg’s eccentricities don’t interest me like yours and Lelouch’s do,” he says finally. What Gino decided to overly obsess over (like catching a damn hat) wasn’t important to the mission until it jeopardized one of the latter individuals, or otherwise created an obstacle. 

Him being on a date, for example, and not supervising Lelouch (or Suzaku) was an obstacle. 

Why Gino felt such an acute desire to make that happen, however, was not.

“Should I take that as a compliment? That you think I’m interesting?” Suzaku tries to joke, laughing weakly, “Something tells me that’s a challenge.”

That gets Rolo’s attention again. He looks up, but doesn’t say anything. In the quiet of the closet, he hears Suzaku quietly begin to apologize, but it trails off into nothing. They remain like that, avoiding one another’s gaze, for painfully slow seconds that feel like minutes. 

For Rolo, it was the anxiety of leaving Lelouch unsupervised - that something ridiculous would happen and he would somehow be blamed for it despite fulfilling his part in the plan. 

For Suzaku, it was the ugly reminder of Euphemia. Catching someone on the run and more-or-less eloping together, off to some forgotten corner until they’d eventually be found or have to come out. The memory brings bile to his mouth, and he drily swallows.

But most strangely, neither of them were in a hurry to leave the moment, however uncomfortable it was. 

“...Milly won’t call off the event until later this afternoon. We’re going to have a few hours to kill,” Rolo murmurs, clicking his phone back into locked mode.

“We can leave if you-- oh. Nevermind.”

Suzaku folds his hands loosely, rubbing the top of his thumb with the other. “I’m not usually this weird, I’m sorry. I’m just, I have a lot on my mind. Not really a… big fan of romance, anyways.”

The clinical part of Rolo’s mind tells him to ask Suzaku if he would like to just spit it out, so they could play closet therapist and then pretend they never spoke when they leave. It wasn’t something that would impact their work relationship -- or, it wouldn’t on Rolo’s end. There was no reason for it to. He had stepped in and out of Suzaku’s life flawlessly, and only arrived as directed to assist. As the oldest Geass-capable agent from the Directorate it was natural. Doubly so as Suzaku was one of the only Knights with a knowledge of the Emperor’s supernatural fixations - and Lelouch’s Geass.

The softer side, the part he spent most of his days repressing around the Ashford students, says he’s clearly hurting over something and doesn’t need a solution. Like the kids at the facility who were simply sad and didn’t want anything for it but to cry, Suzaku just wanted to sit and be sullen about a mystery event Rolo had unwittingly reminded him of.

He pats the cement beside him, pushing a box aside to clear more space. After a quizzical look, Suzaku slowly climbs off the ladder and hesitantly sits beside him.

“I don’t think we’ve ever talked… er, had a conversation.”

“...Did you want to?” Suzaku asks, raising an eyebrow. He never wanted to be Rolo’s friend, and really he was reluctant to be his colleague. Rolo was an embodiment of how far Lelouch had fallen from who he used to be. Rolo was a living shackle, and the knight wanted to spite him for it -- even at the same time he felt that it was his fault Rolo was forced into this position anyways. Maybe if he’d been stronger, or maybe if he didn’t want revenge so bad… Maybe if, a hundred other things.

Rolo shrugs noncommittally. “It doesn’t matter to me. I thought I would offer.”

Oh.

Suzaku racks his brain for a few seconds, trying to find something to talk about but all he can think about is Euphie and the festival, oscillating incongruently in his head like a broken fan.

“What’s your s-”

“I don’t know. I was never given a birthday,” he cuts him off, staring blankly ahead while bringing his knees up to rest his elbows over them. Suzaku realizes now that the younger (Although… he could be older, he guesses) man was far fitter than he was given credit for, based on the definition - but maybe that was the point behind all his cutesy, baggy clothes. To look frail.

“I’m a cancer. Do you want to share?”

Rolo laughs, and Suzaku smiles just barely. “I don’t think I’m kind enough to be a cancer. Isn’t that the big secret? That inside your shell it’s all soft?”

“I wouldn’t call it a shell-”

“That person you are every day is a shell. I know a mask when I see one,” it cuts, because Rolo has no concept of blunting the edge. Suzaku is taken aback, eyes widening before he glances away. He feels a nudge on his shoulder from Rolo leaning into him, prompting him to look over again.

“It’s not bad.”

“It’s dishonest to everyone. Euphemia never would have liked to see me this way. I’m… This isn’t who I am -- was.”

So that’s what’s wrong, “They don’t know any better, Suzaku. Saying that is like assuming a dog wants to be free.”

Suzaku opens his mouth, only to close it again and furrows his eyebrows down. He curls back into himself, resting his chin on his knees. He wants to argue, but he’s too disimpassioned for it. Rolo tilts his head, looking him over before returning his eyes to his hands.

“You would know about that, wouldn’t you?” Suzaku asks quietly.

“Yes. I know a lot more than anyone thinks to ask me about,” comes the admission.

A stillness falls over the space. It doesn’t choke or flood, it only reaches gently into every crack and crevice between the boxes and the looming walls. It drags their words into whispers at first before it turns them into nothing, and all they can hear is the students running amok on the staircase and in the lobby.

Rolo checks his phone again. Only fifteen minutes have passed.

“Do you like cats?” Suzaku volunteers once the phone screen blackens again.

“...I used to try to sneak them into the dorms in my jackets, after missions.”

“Oh, good, so I’m not the only person that takes in random strays,” Suzaku uncoils, resting his back flat against the wall again with a strained sort of smile. “That’s how I got Arthur.”

“You… you just picked him up and took him?”

“S...Sort of. Maybe not, er. Euphie took him, really, but he became mine, after everything,” he rubs his fingers over a few healing bite marks, and Rolo arches his brows at them.

“It doesn’t seem like he likes you very much. He never seems happy to see you, at least.”

“That’s just. How he does, I think. Tough love.”

Rolo frowns, echoing his words before tilting his head back against the door. “You’re sure you’re not just a masochist?”

They pass the time like that for a bit, going back and forth with poor conversation starters and seeing where they go. Some end suddenly, with a bad memory or admission. Others keep on for some time, with smiles and quiet laughs.

By the time Milly sounds the halftime bells, Rolo has dropped his head blearily onto Suzaku’s shoulder. It’s peaceful, combined with the dusty sunlight streaming through the small window. Suzaku likes the warmth (closeness, if he’s honest), the quiet sound of Rolo’s even breathing. At least in this closet, they’re university students doing ordinary university student things - navigating awkward conversations and empathizing with one another’s exasperation with mutual peers.

Even if that was putting it optimistically. 

He almost doesn’t want to shake him awake, but he’s afraid if his legs get anymore numb, he won’t be able to walk for the rest of the festival. God knows he was going to need to be able to run at least a few more times today.

“Hey you-- whoah, it’s alright--” 

Rolo startles away as soon as Suzaku’s hands are on him, rubbing at one of his eyes before quietly picking himself up off the floor, “Sorry, Lord Kururugi. I hadn’t-- that was inappropriate,”

“You’re fine. Thanks for the hand -- and… You can call me Suzaku. Outside of the surveillance center, I mean. If you’re comfortable with it.”

It takes a few moments for them both to let go, trying to prolong the time they had to parse out some words about their hour and a half together. Eventually, they both end up saying nothing. Suzaku waits for Rolo to open the door with the security key, glancing around the space one more time.

Maybe he could do some thinking here. Surely there was another key in the observation lab--

He flinches backwards as Rolo turns around, reaching for him and swiping the hat off of his head. After tucking it safely in the crook of his arm, he offers Suzaku his own hat -- and the other man takes it, a bit stunned.

“I’ll see you at Olive Garden later. No Gino.”


End file.
